Covered up as an "accidental" shooting even though multiple shots were fired and she attempted to carjack a passing motorist.

Of course the detailed case files conveniently went missing. Congressman Delahunt (D-MA) who was the DA who swept it under the rug was "unavailable for comment".

Apparently she also thought the chemical engineering professors were making their classes too hard to make life rough on Biology students. The soft bigotry of low expectations.

I found that rather odd. I actively sought out the toughest professors in my later undergrad and grad school years. Its been my experience that the tough ones are the ones who really care. Giving away A's doesn't do anyone any favors. I had one who's tests were so brutal, nobody ever scored more than 25% on one. People avoided his classes in droves, but I signed up for every one I could.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:44 PM | Comments (404)
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Welcome all to your weekly Saturday night ONT.

Don't forget that tomorrow is Valentines Day so Morons there's still time to grab a Choco-Rose from 7-11. And today was Mistress Day so I guess you're out of luck on that front.

Know Your Enemy Part 3: The 15 Hottest Scandi Chicks at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Currently Norway is projected to tie the US in gold medals. And would it be wrong to wish for another spandex wardrobe malfunction?

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:37 PM | Comments (623)
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USMC Photo

All reports seem to be that the operation is going well.

At least 20 Taliban fighters were killed in the first hours of the assault, said General Sher Mohammad Zazai, commander of the operation's Afghan troops.

"So far, we have killed 20 armed opposition fighters. Eleven others have been detained," he said, adding they were killed in separate engagements.

NATO commanders were "very pleased with how it has gone," senior British military spokesman Major General Gordon Messenger told a briefing in London.

"The key objective has been secured," he said, explaining that the main aims for British troops were to secure the population centres and installations such as police stations in the Chah-e Anjir Triangle northeast of Marjah.

There had been some "sporadic fighting," but the Taliban appeared to be "confused and disjointed" and unable "to put up a coherent response," he said.

The seeming lack of major fights with the Taliban may be because they simply aren't prepared to fight or perhaps they have melted away as they have before only to return later.

In the past coalition forces would take an area but then not have the forces to hold the area let alone implement the third leg of the COIN stool...build. If that's what the enemy is counting on this time, they appear to be in for a disappointment.

“We’ve got a government in a box, ready to roll in,” said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander here.

Indeed, Marja is intended to serve as a prototype for a new type of military operation, based on the counterinsurgency thinking propounded by General McChrystal in the prelude to President ObamaÂ’s decision in December to increase the number of American troops here to nearly 100,000.

More than at any time since 2001, American and NATO soldiers will focus less on killing Taliban insurgents than on sparing Afghan civilians and building an Afghan state.

“The population is not the enemy,” Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan, told a group of troops this week. “The population is the prize — they are why we are going in.”

To realize their goals, the Americans and their allies want to capture the area with a minimum amount of violence. American commanders say the attack on Marja is intended to be nothing like the similar size assault on the city of Falluja, Iraq, in November 2004. In that case, Falluja, under the control of hundreds of insurgents, was largely destroyed. The Americans killed plenty of guerrillas, but they did not make any friends.

“We don’t want Falluja,” General McChrystal said in an interview this week. “Falluja is not the model.”

The Times of London also has an excellent article on the offensive, including local reaction to the offensive.

As I've said before, I'm pessimistic about the ability of the coalition to make Afghanistan anything approaching a normal state but I hope I'm wrong. I don't however doubt for one second the ability of the US Marines and the rest of the American military to kick the Taliban's ass.

So far, they seem to be doing just that. Continued prayers for their success and safety.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:47 PM | Comments (330)
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Apparently, this forward thinking, visionary, and very prudent measure was put forth by Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft.

...A “driver’s licence” for the web would be Christmas every day of the year for the control freaks....

...Without the internet, the completely fictitious global warming “consensus” would still be unchallenged, state power massively enlarged, $54 trillion of Western taxpayers’ money flooding into the coffers of carbon companies and people’s lives made miserable by totalitarian restrictions imposed to counter a non-existent threat...

I look at it this way; if you can plug in and power up a computer to the point where its connected to the internet, you've already accomplished far more in terms of "demonstrating competence" than is required to ummm....VOTE.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 12:29 PM | Comments (313)
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I just spent an hour looking for something, anything, post-worthy, but nothing really stood up and waved its arms, so you're getting an open thread instead.

Here are some headlines to get you started:

NASA Has Trouble With New ISS Install
A critical insulating cover does not fit.

Olympic Probe Says It Was Driver Error, Not the Track, that Caused Georgian Luge Death
But if that's so, why have they decided that the men will start lower on the track?

Erick Erickson is Banning Birthers, Truthers, and "Groups Affiliated Therewith" from RedState
It's a highly symbolic gesture, brimming with political consequence. So here at the Q, I'm banning hockey, people who like the designated hitter rule, and lawyers who say things like "therewith."

Di-Fi Used Notes Written on Her Hand in 1990 Debate
Seriously, the only response you need to give your stupid libtard coworkers on this non-scandal is to sarcastically reply, "yeah, she should have just stuck with a teleprompter the whole time, like the President." That tends to shut them up quick. Either that or go on the warpath about liberal misogyny for calling it "Palin's hand job."

Google Buzz is Off to an Awful Start As It Apparently Discloses Your Most Frequently Used Email Addresses
I turned off Buzz immediately on all my gmail accounts, but I don't really know if that's removed whatever it disclosed from other people's Buzz lists. Or whatever. The truth is I can't fucking tell what Buzz did at all and that's most of the problem. Google should de-couple Buzz from Gmail. Always build for the opt-in, you stupid fools, not the opt-out.

What else is doin'?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:24 AM | Comments (369)
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Saturday morning funsies.

The Picture of Dorian Kennedy

Weasel's got a knack for capturing the thing, doesn't she?

All seriousness aside, I was reminded of a story by the late Michael Kelly, his last (I think) interview with Ted Kennedy. I will not remember the wording correctly (I have dejavu amnesia, "I think I have forgotten this before") but he drew a rather stark contrast between the youthful, energetic Edward Kennedy and the mass of corpulent bloated gin-soaked powerbelly that Ted became.

I don't know why I thought of that. Patches seems to have kept his weight down.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:07 AM | Comments (171)
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Woohoo it's a holiday weekend friday!!!!! Time to start the ONTin'...

Get your own here. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:00 PM | Comments (703)
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Aside from figure skating of any sort, I'm totally in the tank for the Winter Olympics. I'm also not interested in the Opening and Closing crap, too North Koreanish for me but some may enjoy it, so here's a thread*.

Sure we don't have the Soviets to kick around anymore and the Scandis win way too much but I love the Winter Olympics because you see stuff you never see otherwise. When else do you get to see Bobsledding, Luge and the Biathlon. Hell they even compete in something called "Skeleton" because Luge just wasn't crazy enough. The best parts of course are Hockey and Curling.

The hockey tournament starts on Tuesday and in my never ending quest to lift you non-hockey philistines out of your football induced stupor, I'll be doing some Olympic Hockey blogging along with tmi3rd during the tournament. We'll begin sometime on Sunday with a preview of the teams and maybe a primer on the game in general for those of you who need it.

Unfortunately, there was some tragic news today before the games get underway. A member of the Georgia Luge Team was killed in a training crash.

*I know not everyone is a Winter Olympics or sports enthusiast but don't worry, this thread isn't at the expense of some more typical AoSHQ fare (whatever that is). Just relax, like a bus, there'll be another one along any minute.

No matter what happens in the next two weeks however, it will not top this great Olympic moment. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 04:12 PM | Comments (1079)
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A Texas state senator, Dan Patrick, tweets:

Medina digs hole deeper-says today she has questions how policemen got out and not the fireman on 9/11 She just can't let this go

Someone connected in politics down there tells me she's a Paulbot, as most of you heard, but that she didn't run expecting to get much traction -- her plan, he guesses, is to get enough name ID that she can take over the state party in the summer, all for the glory of (Doctor) Ron Paul.

Posted by: Ace at 03:56 PM | Comments (109)
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Above the Post Update: Wow. Awful timing for a frivolous post. Just saw Ace's post directly below. Be sure to scroll down. My prayers go out for the dead, their families, and everyone at the university.

Original Post:

Mark your calendars, Los Angeles-area readers. Several of you have risen to my challenge that San Francisco was easier to mobilize and demanded an opportunity to prove that L.A. morons are just as capable of getting together to drink as San Fran nancy-morons.

To that end, we will have a Moron Meetup the evening of Saturday, February 20 in Hollywood. The place has $6 valet or street parking nearby.

As per our usual practice, you can get the time and location via email. Long-time reader h2u has offered to handle that part of the organizing. You can reach him at "HebrewToYou" at google-mail. (Email addy not spelled out in a probably-vain attempt to cut down on spam. Put the name in quotes with "@gmail.com".)

Hope to see you there!

Update: Hey, apparently there are Facebook and Yahoo and Google group sites set up for this kind of thing. I don't know about that stuff, so if you're on one of those groups, you might mention this post on there. Thanks!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:27 PM | Comments (38)
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